Microsoft to End Windows 10 Free Upgrade Offer: What You Should Know

The time has come: on July 29th, 2016 Microsoft will officially be ending the Windows 10 free upgrade offer. For those who haven’t yet upgraded to Windows 10 and would like to take advantage of this offer before it’s over, there are a few things to consider before making the plunge.

Microsoft has made upgrading to Windows 10 much easier than previous versions of Windows; they have even included an app, called the ‘Get Windows 10 App’, in one of their recent updates to help. This app’s purpose is to let you know that you can upgrade to Windows 10 for free! And, gone are the days of running out to your local big-­box retailer to purchase a copy; you can simply download it directly from Microsoft and install it!

Sounds great, right? The only problem is: this app will appear on all computers running Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, regardless of whether or not the computer’s vendor (Dell, HP, etc.) has released Windows-10-compatible drivers for the computer’s hardware. So, before you upgrade, it is very important to make sure that all of your system’s hardware will be compatible with Windows 10. This is something we at Frankenstein computers can help assess for you, and in the event we determine that your system’s hardware is not compatible with Windows 10, we can remove that ‘Get Windows 10 App’ so it won’t bug you anymore.

Another thing to consider is software. While common software like Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office, Quickbooks, etc. will likely be compatible with Windows 10, more specialized or proprietary software may not. If you are running this type of software, you’d be well advised to check with the vendor to see if they support Windows 10 prior to upgrading.

One final thing to consider: if you do decide to upgrade to Windows 10, Microsoft will retain your previous operating system files for 31 days after the upgrade. So take those 31 days to really make sure you are happy with it. If you decide you’re not – we’ll be able to roll you back to your previous operating system, no problem.